Oculus Touch Controllers – Style with Low Price | 2017/2018 Review

The Oculus Touch release date has finally gone by a full 9 months after the release of Oculus Rift; the Oculus touch is finally out for grabs.

It is time to experience VR like never before when the Oculus Rift combines with Oculus touch.

The twin motion controllers are as good and may be better than HTC’s Vive which is what all VR enthusiasts dream about possessing.

The novelty of the Oculus Touch wore out soon enough and the gadget was relegated to the back of the shelf. This was because the headset did not deliver as expected. But with the Oculus Rift touch things will change. With the Touch you do not remain a mere spectator to VR but can actually interact almost naturally to any virtual game environment.

Oculus Rift Touch price on several sites can seem unfair to the avid gamer because ideally, it should have been a part of the Oculus Rift package instead of a mere accessory.

Best features of the Oculus Touch

Sturdy Design: Made of black plastic the Oculus Rift Touch controllers are designed well and stylishly. Not only do they look good but they are contoured well too. Your hands will confirm to the controllers quite effortlessly.

Wireless: You can set aside any worries of tripping over cables and wires’ running all over the place as is the case with other VR controllers. The Oculus Touch pair are wireless and sit snugly in your hands.

Comfortable to hold and use: The hand fits comfortably around the rounded handles and the index finger automatically reaches the trigger; the various other controllers are placed quite comfortably near the other fingers on both hands. The better ergonomics and finger tracking ensure that you can use the controllers longer without feeling the strain.

Lightweight: These controllers are smaller and lighter than other controllers thereby reducing the strain on the hands when using them.

Long battery life: The battery in the controllers can last for 30 hours without haptic feedback; and 20 hours with it.

Easy to setup: The online instructions are simple and easy to follow making the setup fairly straightforward.

Free games: There are several free games that you can access on the Oculus home store.

Less Space: You can use the Oculus touch along with the Rift in very small spaces too unlike the HTC which has a minimum space requirement. A 1.5 square meter room too is good enough to use the Oculus rift along with the touch controllers.

Sensitive: The controllers are instinctive and can gauge the strength with which you push a button and produce results in the game in tune with your reactions.

Greater Flexibility: The ergonomic design of the controllers ensures that they remain well balanced between your thumb and index fingers; this gives you greater flexibility to use any of the hands and also manage the other controls quite effortlessly.

Negative features of Oculus Touch

Limited steam VR: Though there are some Steam titles that the Oculus Rift works with, there are lots of issues in the way the games respond to the Touch controllers. Users have reported crashes, stalls and glitches among other problems.

Poor room scaling experience: The lack of room scaling is probably one of the biggest drawbacks with the oculus touch. You are rooted to a single spot while playing games that are more fun with motion.

There is no rear sensor which makes the tracking all wrong and stops been a seamless experience. To overcome this you will need the aid of ugly extension cables or invest in a third camera for the 360-degree experience.

Can’t be charged over USB: The absence of a USB charger is sorely felt in this pair. This means that you need to stock up on your AA batteries to continue to play without interruption.

Poor quality button: The material used for the buttons and the buttons themselves are of poor quality. The buttons are not too tactile.

Doesn’t come with Oculus Rift: In reality, the Oculus Rift is incomplete without the oculus touch; together they offer the best VR experience. Therefore the absence of the Oculus touch in the Oculus Rift package will turn out to be a big disadvantage for the product.

The Oculus Touch price, the Oculus Rift Price and the price of either upgrading or investing in a high-end PC might be too much strain on a user’s pocket.

Explore an expansive list of groundbreaking new Touch experiences on the Oculus Store.

This is an Oculus Rift accessory only. Rift headset sold separately.

Advantages over competition

Ergonomics: The oculus touch is ergonomically better when compared with other VR like the HTC. The Oculus Touch ensures that both the hands are used equally. The dainty looking controller comes with several buttons and makes sure that each finger is optimally used. This is a huge bonus for the first timer because the Touch can actually tell what each finger is doing at a given time.

An extension of the real hand: With the Oculus Touch you can virtually do anything that your hand does; picking, grasping, throwing, firing a gun, and also make gestures like pointing, waves, and the thumbs-up sign.

Precise Tracking: For that ultimate VR experience tracking and immersion have to be top notch. It is not enough to see stuff, you should actually experience all the sights and sounds in the environment With the Oculus Touch there is almost zero lag in the tracking; you can decide how to move your hands and where to move them on the screen.

Tutorial: Even a newcomer to the field of VR will be able to use the Oculus Touch with ease thanks to the tutorial which provides step by step instructions right from setting up to using the gadget.

The Final Verdict

Look no further, the best VR controller is here in the form of the Oculus Touch.

The sleek ergonomic controllers with finger controls that can be emulated by others in the market, the Oculus touch in combination with the Oculus Rift is here to give you the best VR experience ever.

Remember the Oculus touch is not just any accessory but a must-have with the oculus rift. The hand presence in the touch controllers takes interaction to the next level. You can move your virtual hands and make them do anything that your real hands can do.

There are a few drawbacks too like the absence of the 360-degree tracking which will leave you disoriented. But this too can be overcome at a little extra cost. Buy a third camera because the set doesn’t come with it, and set it up for a full room scale VR.

The disadvantage with this option though is that you will have to tackles few extension cables and forgo another USB port on your PC. Hopefully, the makers will overcome this aspect too.

So, finally, we can say with confidence that the Oculus Rift armed with the Oculus touch is here to give the HTC Vive a run for its money. VR has been taken to a whole new dimension with the release of the Oculus touch where the virtual world is really real. And in future, might be able to overcome the limitation they face with Steam titles too.